Acute water scarcity is presently threatening the lives of a greater majority of residents of several communities in Bauchi State. The situation has become so bad that the state government on Sunday pleaded the people to exercise more patience as it makes efforts to improve supply in the towns.

Addressing newsmen in Bauchi on Sunday, the Commissioner for Water Resources, Alhaji Sani Bara, said government was aware of the problem faced by the people because of inadequate supply.

Bara said that unstable power supply greatly affected water supply but that the government was in contact with the management of Power Holding Company of Nigeria on how to improve the situation.

He said another factor was that the plant was originally meant to supply water for less number of people but that because of the influx of persons from neighbouring states, demands had greatly increased.

“Because of the need for the pipes to be reticulated, the capacity of the supply has dropped and that is why the government is doing everything possible to fix the problem.”

He added that in some areas, new pipes had already been laid and that engineers were asked to go round the city to take statistics of boreholes sunk by individuals or politicians.